Irises - Van Gogh - Puzzle

70 cm x 50 cm
27.5" x 19.5"
1,000 pieces

Plagued by mental illness throughout his life, prolific Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh chose to enter an asylum in Saint-Rémy, France in May 1889, where, in the last year before his death, he created almost 130 paintings. Irises was the first painting Van Gogh started after his arrival.

Each iris petal in the painting is unique, featuring different shading, shape and size and painted with the same precision as Van Gogh’s portraits. There is no repetition, but rather an endless variety of curved silhouettes. Only one blossom, however, is a completely different color. He paints the flowers with admiration and joy.

Vincent van Gogh (born March 30, 1853, Zundert, Netherlands—died July 29, 1890, Auvers-sur-Oise, near Paris, France) was a Dutch post-impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art.

In a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, including around 860 oil paintings, most of which date from the last two years of his life. They include landscapes, still lifes, portraits and self-portraits, and are characterized by bold colors and dramatic, impulsive and expressive brushwork that contributed to the foundations of modern art. He was not commercially successful, and his death at 37 came after years of mental illness, depression and poverty.